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Swimming
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Swimming is the method by which humans (or other animals) move themselves through water. Swimming is a popular recreational activity, particularly in hot countries and in areas with natural watercourses. Swimming is also a competitive sport. There are many health benefits of swimming, yet basic swimming skills and safety precautions are needed to participate in water activities.
Competition
Competitive swimming is swimming with the goal to maximize performance, usually the speed of swimming. Competitive swimming became popular in the 19th century, and is an event at the Summer Olympic Games. There are four swimming disciplines regulated by the FINA, swum over different distances.
Freestyle places no restrictions on what action the competitors use, except during the freestyle portion of medley swimming. In practice, almost all freestyle events are swum using front crawl. Events are held at distances of 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m.
Butterfly events require that the swimmer's actions retain bilateral symmetry (the left side of the body has to do the same as the right). Events are held at distances of 50m, 100m, and 200m.
Breaststroke, from which the butterfly stroke evolved, places the additional restriction that the swimmer's hands must be pushed forward together from the breast and that the elbows must remain under the water. It is the slowest stroke, and events are held at distances of 50m, 100m, and 200m.
Backstroke places no symmetry restrictions, but swimmers must lay on their back at all times except during turns to perform the stroke. Backstroke is performed, in essence, as an inversion of the crawl - competitors swing their arms back over their shoulder, alternately, and pull through under the water to provide motive power, with a flutter kick. Events are held at distances of 50m, 100m, and 200m.
In addition to that there are a number of combination events in Competitive swimming.
Relay, where a number of swimmers swim sequentially. Events are held at distances of 4*50m freestyle (short 25 lane only), 4* 100m freestyle and 4*200m freestyle.
Individual Medley, where one swimmer swims Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle in this order. Events are held at distances of 100m (short 25m lane only), 200m, and 400m.
Medley Relay, where four swimmer swim Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly, and Freestyle in this order. Events are held at distances of 4*50m medley (short 25 lane only) and 4* 100m medley.
Full rules are on the rules web page (http://www.fina.org/swimrules.html) of FINA.
Competitive swimming has traditionally been dominated by the United States, but recently that dominance has been challenged by Australia , where swimming is a hugely popular recreational activity, and participant and spectator sport. The success of Australian swimmers like Ian Thorpe and Kieren Perkins is reminiscent of Australia's previous golden age of swimming in the 1950s and 1960s, which saw the emergence of swimmers such as Shane Gould and Dawn Fraser.
There are also a number of other Competitive swimming performances, for example a long distance 5 kilometer open-water event, which became part of the Olympic program in 2000, or long distance swims across the English Channel, or circumnavigating Manhattan Island. The world record for the longest nonstop swim is held by Martin Strel for swimming 504km nonstop in 2001 in the Danube River. He also swam the Mississippi River in 2002 in 66+2days, a total of 3885km.
Swimming is also a crucial part of other sports, such as water polo, synchronized swimming and triathlon.
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